Parallel Justice Podcast for January 2011 Beat Intro Voiceover 00.10 This is the Beat - a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Circle of Respect Interview Jeremy 00.15 Hello, my name is Jeremy Writt. On behalf of the COPS office, I'm here today with Susan Herman to talk about Parallel Justice. Miss Herman, what is Parallel Justice and how are you involved? Susan 00.28 Well Parallel Justice is really a set of principles that provide a framework for responding to crime in a new way. I developed this concept to emphasize that as a society, we not only have a responsibility to identify offenders and hold them accountable, we have a separate and distinct obligation to help victims rebuild their lives. I believe that every victim of crime deserves justice, a communal response to help them get their lives back on track - regardless of the status of the offender. And I used the term 'Parallel Justice' to emphasize that there are two separate paths to justice - - one for victims and one for offenders. And our responses can take place contemporaneously. Jeremy 01.11 What do you mean by communal? Susan 01.12 I mean all sectors of society - government, agencies, community-based organizations, and individuals - neighbors, businesses - everybody has a role to play in providing parallel justice. Jeremy 01.26 What would you say are the ten guiding principles of Parallel Justice? If you could just briefly educate us on what those are. Susan 01.33 Sure. The first is: justice requires helping victims of crime rebuild their lives. Then, all victims of crime deserve justice. All victims should be presumed credible, unless there is reason to believe otherwise. Victim safety should be a top priority. Victims should experience no further harm - and by that I don't mean necessarily from the offender - I mean by other agencies' policies and practices. Victims' rights should be implemented and enforced. Victims should have opportunities to talk about their experience and their needs. Victims should be told that what happened to them was wrong and that every effort will be made to help them rebuild their lives. Victims' needs should be addressed through a comprehensive coordinated communal response. And finally, decisions about how to address victims' needs should be based on sound information and research. Jeremy 02.27 How would a law enforcement agency incorporate that into their community policing effort? Susan 02.33 Well to me, community policing supports problem-solving and promotes legitimacy. And I think efforts to prevent the next crime or essentially preventing repeat victimization are very important community policing strategies. Research tells us that once you're the victim of crime you are more likely to be a victim of that crime again - at least for a short time. So, in order to address the problem of repeat victimization, police have to keep records that track victimization -- not just offending behavior. And they need to place a high priority on victim safety. As to legitimacy, in the aftermath of crime, if victims feel that the police blame them for the crime or they disbelieve them or trivialize their experience, they're less likely to share more information with anyone else or seek help. By contrast, when police demonstrate concern, tell victims explicitly that what happened to them is wrong and actively engage them in problem solving and safety planning, victims are more likely to remain hopeful and feel they're regaining control over their lives. But this means that they have confidence in the legitimacy of police and the criminal justice process. If victims know that their safety is a high priority they are much more likely to report to police and stay involved throughout the entire process. Jeremy 03.54 Now your organization does a lot to help police or law enforcement agencies incorporate this into their day-to-day activities. If you could, tell us a little bit about what you do and the services you guys provide to law enforcement agencies. Susan 04.13 Well I work with a number of colleagues in what we call the Parallel Justice Project and there are really three phases to the work. First, you need to introduce the concept of parallel justice and that really involves the police department trying to generate support for parallel justice. Many departments have done this by distributing the book, Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime, or convening public meetings where they talk about it. What we do during that process is help with public speaking and give workshops to anyone in the community that the department identifies. Then you begin to plan the parallel justice initiative and the department can try and convene multi-agency interdisciplinary task force and if they want we can help facilitate that strategic planning process. And then you implement the plan that you come up with. And what we can do during that period of time is coach various members of the task force, whether it's agency heads or people within an agency who are carrying out the details of the plan. Jeremy 05.20 So this really does kind of force law enforcement to get out into the community just by the very nature of that awareness arm of it. Susan 05.32 It certainly promotes collaboration. Well, let me tell you about three departments who are in three different stages of this work. In Burlington, the department has played a very key role in a three-way Parallel Justice Partnership between the department, the local community justice center, and the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services. Early on in the process -- and this has been years that they've been working on this -- they determined that one of the problems they wanted to address was the lack of concrete resources for crime victims in their community. The department felt very frustrated that they had no way to help victims with very practical needs like changing a lock or fixing a broken window, or even being able to quickly replace some household items stolen in a burglary. So with these partners they created the Parallel Justice Resource Bank to be able to offer victims concrete practical services. Last count, they had 45 businesses who contributed free or discounted services to crime victims. Everything from discounted bicycles, repair work and food, to free emergency daycare -- when you think about a crime victim needing to go to court and needing day care. So they've done a lot of work. That department also has a designated Parallel Justice specialist who works alongside their more traditional victim advocate. The advocate help victims go through the criminal justice processes - most advocates do - but the Parallel Justice specialist advocates for victims to get resources and services to help them move on with their lives. So that's Burlington. They have also created a Parallel Justice commission that was created by both the governor and mayor of Burlington. They meet quarterly. They address problems identified by individual crime victims and when those problems reveal systemic breakdowns, they work collaboratively to solve them. And this, I believe, enhances community policing efforts on the ground. Across the country, in Redlands, California they have made helping victims rebuild their lives one of the five guiding principles of the Redland's police department. They have really focused a lot on the importance of responding officers - not only gathering evidence in determining if a crime occurred - but engaging victims in problem solving to try to prevent repeat victimization. They have made a particular effort to actively communicate to victims through all their contacts with them, that what happened to them is wrong and they'll do everything they can to assist them. This message comes from responding officers, their website, and even cards sent by their 911 operators a few weeks after the initial call. It sounds like a little thing but it means the world to crime victims to hear this message consistently. Jeremy 08.29 Certainly. And it's got to be great to have that kind of emotional response to what's going on with them in their lives and not just have law enforcement be that robotic authority figure. Susan 08.42 Well, it's actually more than a-- it certainly shows compassion, but it's more than that. It says 'we believe that what happened to you is wrong'. It's actually a judgment and saying 'we're going to do everything we can to assist you'. Let me tell you a little about Providence, in Rhode Island -- they are at the beginning of this process. They've distributed the book, Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime, to their entire command staff as well as the social service agencies, and local university, who are their partners in this effort. They are about to undertake an analysis of how every aspect of their department - any function that has anything at all to do with victims can be aligned to follow parallel justice principles. They plan to do interviews, focus groups, surveys of victims -- they'll look at everything from the way the 911 operators talk to callers, the responding officers in detective roles, to the property clerk and any administrative fees the victims incur. They'll also analyze their records - this is really important - to see if they are tracking repeat victimization as well as possible, not only offending behavior - repeat victimization - to make sure they're keeping victims' safety a high priority. 10.01 Providence has been designated a teaching department. So the lessons they've learned from this work will be shared with probably a thousand other police departments in the northeast through regional training. They'll also share this work with the northeast major chiefs association - the 13 biggest departments in six New England states. I am very excited about what's ahead for Providence because this is going to be a very comprehensive effort. Jeremy 10.32 Well obviously it's working in Providence. We are almost out of time -- but if I am a member of another law enforcement agency and I want to get started with Parallel Justice, where do I go? Where do I tap into all these resources? Susan 10.44 I think you look first at www.paralleljustice.org online. You see what we are all about, you get a copy of the book, and see whether this is an initiative that you'd like to endorse. It's sort of remarkably simple, but it really promotes very profound results. The police in Redlands talk about this as a paradigm shifting experience for them. Jeremy 11.12 Well Susan, I know you're a busy lady and I want to thank you again for taking the time to talk with us about Parallel Justice. On behalf of the COPS office, I'm Jeremy Writt and this has been The Beat. Beat Exit Voiceover: The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice Cops Office. The Cops Office helps to keep our nation's communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships and solving problems. ####END OF TRANSCRIPT####